Watch the interview above
The first time I heard Tamar Aphek was like my first taste of Kombucha. It’s a little weird…bold…different…I don’t get it…what is this? Then you explore the flavours and realize there is a lot going on here. Ultimately, you just can’t get enough.
Kombucha has live cultures, and I feel that every time I listen to All Bets Are Off, it changes…like the album is a living organism. I experience it differently every single time.
Tamar’s music is a live explosion of culture.
Imagine if a tour bus with The Doors happens to collide with another hauling The Velvet Underground, including Nico, while a jazz drummer crossed their path.
Everyone has amnesia, but a few core members get together to form a new band…that’s the sound of Tamar Aphek.
“The theme of the accident is something I use a lot when creating and working with musicians. When being inside the creative process, it’s great when you are not too careful about the song, what other people might think or are expecting.”
You might first experience Crossbow, like I did, a song that pounds at you with its heavy drum and bass vibrations. The rest is very different and quite addictive.
“You are definitely talking about the album the way I wanted people listening to it for the first time to experience it. It was very important to create something that I didn’t necessarily hear before. When I do music, I try to interest myself.”
Tamar loves being challenged by the music she listens to. She will give it repeated listens, exploring every facet.
“It’s like going on a trip, seeing scenery that I haven’t seen before.”
The genre of the album is often described as Jazz & Roll, this melding of one genre, Rock-and-Roll, that owes its root to Jazz, fused together like two tour busses melding into each other.
“To fully grasp what I’m seeing, there’s this process where the brain needs to work hard in order to explain what I’m experiencing.”
I’m a little jealous of the result.
Borrowing from the title of the album, there is a gamble when you let your musicians experiment and improvise, but the risk paid off and Tamar hit the jackpot.
Origin Story
At the age of 7, Tamar learnt how to play the piano, and eventually joined a children’s choir. She attended a conservatory high school, so she was surrounded by Classical music since childhood.
“Of course, the first pieces I was enchanted by were Beethoven, Debussy and Mozart.”
She would later be exposed to bands like Radiohead & Nirvana.
Even if she knew about Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones, she never craved listening to them. It was the bands on the fringes that captured her attention.
She took up the guitar at the age of 18, and the first album to catch her off-guard was The Argument by Fugazi. She was also hearing a lot of Red Hot Chili Peppers, but “mostly in order to train.”
“As a guitar player, the first thing you want to do is hit the distortion pedal and play really loud. That’s Rock-and-Roll. When I heard Fugazi, I was like WOW…you can do Punk music, but you could also blend into it Jazz music, special rhythmic music or even Classical music.”
For Tamar, Fugazi, Sonic Youth and The Jesus Lizard exposed her to the experimental side of music.
She was fascinated by the different sounds that she couldn’t pin down.
“The sound, the production with the combination of different genres really caught me. I was so enchanted by it.”
One of the places where Tamar was exposed to new music was the Patiphon in Tel Aviv.
Tamar’s guitar teacher was in a band called Mono Addicted Acid Man (now called Monotonix) who first invited her to the Patiphon to catch one of their performances.
Growing up in Tel Aviv, Tamar didn’t see great live bands, so her only exposure was YouTube.
“It was the first time I saw a show where the band was louder than the vocals. I was charmed by the mess, and the brilliant playing.”
Having experienced for the first time live Rock-and-Roll, something inside Tamar knew it would be her new path.
Israeli Culture
Music has always been a part of Israeli culture.
Genesis 4:21 talks about Jubal the “founder of all those who handle the harp and the pipe.”
Jubal may have invented strung and wind instruments.
Tamar and her family may not be religious, but she loves the songs they sing at the holidays.
“There are some brilliant melodies going on there. There is something very intense in these songs, especially during Passover…some really Psychedelic and dark melodies.”
One of these is Banu Choshech Legaresh, which means: We came to drive away the darkness…we have the light and the fire.
Tamar describes her album as going from the darkness to the light, so these memories might have some inspiration, but Tamar admits that it may have more to do with Star Wars.
“I meant it as this form of cyclicity we are all in. We are always moving from the darker side of ourselves and our perceptions to the brighter side. Part of our job on this earth is to help other people get out of the dark side to the bright side in different subjects like politics, culture and human rights.”
Henry Rollins
“My favourite album of the year so far is by Tamar Aphek” – Henri Rollins KCRW June 20, 2021
One of Tamar’s friends said: “Getting love from Henry Rollins is like getting three Michelin stars.”
How did Tamar feel about that stamp of approval?
“Shocking. Shocking. I love Black Flag. It’s also one of the bands that really influenced me at the time. It’s unreal for me that he liked the album.”
That shout-out made Tamar feel like she was on the right track.
“They get it! Along the way, you stumble across people who don’t get it.”
Because Tamar admires Henry, “you better like it! I changed the course of my life because I was influenced by you!”
Crossbow
It was during the Song Dynasty where crossbows in China outnumbered the bow 2 to 1.
Crossbow hits you like a powerful arrow.
Tamar has referred to her guitar as a weapon…her own crossbow…so what is she trying to target?
“Being a musician, music is the world I work in. When I read the news, or see what’s happening in the world, my reactions are through music. I hope the music I’m doing communicates certain messages, even if I’m not aware of them, which I hope spreads good energy to the world and make a better impact. That’s my job and that’s my weapon.”
Tamar will create characters in her songs, and then try to understand and empathize with what that character is feeling.
“I have a big love for cinema. I wanted this album to feel like a movie. I intentionally didn’t want every song to sound the same way. At one point I realized that I didn’t have to invent different band names, I can just do it with the songs.”
In the past, Tamar would change band names to tell a different story. Now, it’s the albums that are individual auditory movies.
Part of the creative process is also getting into character with the musicians she plays with, both for lyrics and the music itself.
“Sometimes, I feel that the way I work with musicians resembles more directing than producing. Sometimes I want the drums to be a certain character, and then I want the bass to be a different character. If the drums are playing something that is more jazzy, I don’t necessarily want the bass player to play Jazz right now. Maybe I want him to feel like he’s playing Metal, or Electronic music.”
This conflict of genres somehow creates harmony in the end.
Imagine if people with differing viewpoints, beliefs and cultures took a lesson from Tamar’s music, and found a way to work together in harmony.
“When I was working on the songs, I found myself mixing them. For Crossbow, I had a situation where I had bass and drums. I didn’t want to overdub instruments, I wanted bass and drums. In that process, it was very interesting editing the parts, instead of overdubbing new parts. I was gambling that it would work in the end.”
She then handed over the reins to Daniel Schlett who mixed the album, whom she credits with the magic that the album seems to deliver, “making the whole album seem cohesive.”
Before recording, the band used live performances to nail down the direction the album would take.
“The bass and drums where the base of all the songs because I wanted to capture the live experience.”
After laying down the bass/drum tracks, then Tamar started overdubbing the other instruments.
“The whole vision of the mix was taking it to sometimes a more electronic area, rather than the sound of the 70s or a Rock sound.”
Choosing Daptone Studios was also another weapon in her arsenal, as they are more used to recording Soul & Funk.
“It gave it an edge, recording a Rock album there.”
Improvisation
Tamar’s Classical background brings discipline but letting the musician improvise like Jazz was the biggest gamble.
Drive & Nothing Can Surprise Me are two examples where the band used the slack on their leash to explore where the music took them.
Tamar is always prepared, so her background research was doing a deep dive into improvisation techniques and listening to interviews with Jazz musicians like Art Blakey.
Tamar relates the story of Art’s teacher that was trying to encourage him before he went on stage. He was very nervous and unsure about knowing what to do during the improvisation parts. The advice was: “Whenever you feel that way, just do a roll on the snare.”
Watching videos of Art, Tamar can now see that when a snare roll comes on, Art simply didn’t know where to go from there.
“What I got from it is the understanding that when you go on stage and you improvise, it’s good to have a couple of anchors, a couple of signs you have with one another.”
Having those safe spaces allows one to wander, knowing that if they get stuck, they can return to the base camp of the song, and the others will back them up.
Russian Winter
Weather can be a formidable enemy and helped Russia defeat Napoleon and Hitler.
The album was written pre-Pandemic, but it was a sort of Russian Winter, hitting us where we were not expecting.
Politics aside, Russia is synonymous with chess, something that Tamar started doing with her bass player during the downtime.
Chess is about strategy, problem-solving and analytical thinking.
I can’t help but see Tamar’s interest in chess bleed into the making of this record.
The research into improvisation, choosing the right people be on her team, recording at studios where a certain amount of influence could be pulled out of the walls…it was all part of the strategy. Like chess, sometimes you have to make a bold move.
All Bets Are Off was a bold move that, in my opinion, worked brilliantly. Checkmate!
Second Instagram Post
I normally like to see what the first Instagram post is and discuss it, but with Tamar’s account, the second post was irresistible.
Tamar is playing in the crowd with her Les Paul, whose neck was broken 83 times!
“The first time it broke, I realized that it actually broke before.”
She remembers hearing Buzz Osborne (Melvins) mention that his Les Paul broke 17 times.
“I went on tour with this guitar and it would almost break every night.”
The band, Carusella, consisted of Tamar on guitar with only a drummer. They loved that Les Paul like a child.
“Every night, after the show, we would just glue the guitar.”
That Les Paul has since retired, but it just goes to show the kind of intensity and determination that Tamar has, when it comes to music.
Tamar used to perform in the middle of the crowd, something that only happens occasionally now.
“I was all about the guitar. Nothing interested me…not the song…not my vocals…just let me play guitar as loud as I can.”
While she still enjoys a long guitar solo, she is more focused on her vocals and the production, where the guitar now takes more of a back seat approach.
Fantasy Rock Band
When asked to create the ultimate Fantasy Rock Band, here are Tamar’s choices.
Drums: Keith Moon (The Who) “for sure.”
Bass: Jimi Hendrix. “Let’s see what he can do.”
Guitar: “Does Aphex Twin play guitar? I would like to see how he would approach it.”
Vocals: “I want to say Johnny Cash. When he sings, it doesn’t matter who plays, it will be Johnny Cash. Rihanna would be amazing, obviously. Let’s go with Rihanna.”
Conclusion
My hidden agenda with this game is to find out about influences and decipher the choices.
This was the first time someone started with drums, then bass. It is the foundation of the songs, but it’s usually the front person and guitars that get the most attention.
Tamar obviously starts with a strong foundation, and then builds upwards.
Putting Jimi on bass also shows Tamar’s willingness to colour outside the lines. In fact, she shared that her synth player was originally on bass, but she felt that they could do well using synths.
Aphex Twin on guitar? “There are so many questions about the guitar these days. What’s an exciting guitar?” Tamar is not afraid of pushing boundaries and experimenting with musical roles.
Tamar was really impressed with Rihanna’s last album Anti. “She neglected these radio-friendly songs.”
Being radio-friendly was also not the goal of All Bets Are Off, as radio is a poor judge of good music, except for those curated by music lovers like Henry Rollins.
Live
To listen to Tamar Aphek is one thing, but to experience the band live, is quite the other.
Will she break the neck of her guitar again?
Catch the band on September 1st, 2022 at L’Escogriffe TICKETS HERE
If you are going to FME, you can see them perform with Chad Vangaalen on September 2nd, 2022 INFO HERE.
Connect with Tamar Aphek
Writer: Randal Wark is a Professional Speaker and MasterMind Facilitator with a passion for live music. You can follow him on Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. His Podcast RockStar Today helps musicians quit their day jobs with out-of-the-box advice from Ted Talk Speakers, Best Selling Authors and other interesting Entrepreneurs and Creatives. He created the Rock Star Today Music Business Jam Session for musicians. Randal is a collector of signed vinyl, cassettes and CDs.
